For the last week, my life has belonged to LeBron James.
Well, not to him specifically, but to the Promise Project, a home and yard renovation blitz spearheaded by his LeBron James Family Foundation.
Assuming you’ve been conscious this past week, you’ve almost certainly heard about the undertaking. Last weekend volunteers relandscaped nine yards around Akron, and this week crews have been racing to rehabilitate a house in West Hill in conjunction with the TV show Rehab Addict.
Maybe you’ve been reading my updates in the paper or on Ohio.com, but today I thought I’d give you a peek behind the scenes.
The project is a home renovation on overdrive. At just about any given time, workers are crowded into every room, busily trying to bring the tired house back to its charming potential. And the house needed it. There were tears in the carpet, mildew on the bathroom walls and chips in the painted woodwork. The front porch sagged, the plaster walls were mottled and pitted, and at least one kitchen cabinet looked like it might come loose from the wall.
This is a TV project, of course, so camera operators are often videotaping the goings-on. It’s a little weird to think I might see myself on the small screen, tramping through the backyard or peering into the bathroom.
Nicole Curtis, the show’s star, is a dynamo in compact form. Despite her short stature, she commands attention as she strides around in shorts and battered leather boots, her distinctive voice cutting through the commotion. During one video shoot, she had no trouble marshaling the onlookers to move out of the view of the cameras — politely, but with a no-nonsense tone.
She seemed to enjoy showing James’ sons, Bronny and Bryce, how to operate a skid steer loader, but she gave some of the spectators a scare when she did doughnuts in the street with Bronny in the cab. “Whoa! Whoa!” some of them shouted as she spun closer and closer to a backhoe parked nearby. She stopped just short of a collision, and the onlookers resumed breathing.
As I write this midweek, I’ve had only one encounter with James, and only as an observer. My impression? The guy is big. And solid. When he propped his leg on a retaining wall to tie his shoe, one of the volunteers near me pointed out the ropey muscles in his calf. “Granite,” the man said.
James also struck me as a hands-on kind of dad. When he and his sons first arrived at the house and were waiting for the shoot to begin, the boys stuck close to their father, hanging onto his arms or, in Bryce’s case, climbing onto his back. He seemed to revel in their chance to run the heavy equipment, giving them thumbs-up signs when they’d master a skill.
There was no mingling with the crowd or signing autographs, from what I could see. I never even saw him acknowledge any of the onlookers. He was all business.
The real star of this show, in my opinion, is Mariah Riley, the Litchfield Middle School sixth-grader who won the home makeover based on her success in James’ Wheels for Education program.
Mariah is a remarkably poised 11-year-old, all brightness and enthusiasm. She relates easily with adults and didn’t hesitate a bit to answer my questions.
And her expectations are modest. “I’m just hoping my mom gets a closet,” she told me.
I shouldn’t have been surprised by her self-assurance. Her mother, Melanie English, told me she’s been interviewed on Good Morning America about her participation in Wheels for Education, she traveled to Miami in 2013 to watch James receive his fourth NBA Most Valuable Player award, and she recently returned from a two-week trip abroad with People to People Ambassadors, a program that requires youngsters to interview for admission and encourages them to raise money for their trips.
Kudos also goes to the many companies, organizations and individuals who are donating materials and labor to the Promise Project.
The partners were on board months before James made his decision to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, said Michelle Giancarli, a member of the foundation’s advisory board.
“That, to me, says a lot about Akron, Ohio,” she said. “They said yes before he came home. That’s something to be proud of.”
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MBBreckABJ, follow her on Twitter @MBBreckABJ and read her blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/mary-beth.